A Palestinian youth picks up products at a supermarket in Gaza City. Israel's three-year-old land blockade has prevented most commercial goods from getting through to the region.

Bowing to intense international pressure, Israel agreed Sunday to ease its land blockade of Gaza, Reuters reported, saying significant changes would be implemented as "quickly as possible."

"Israel seeks to keep out of Gaza weapons and material that Hamas uses to prepare and carry out terror and rocket attacks against Israel and its civilians," Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Reuters. "All other goods will be allowed into Gaza."

The policy shift comes three weeks after Israel drew international criticism when Israeli commandos raided an aid boat trying to break through the blockade and killed nine Turkish activists onboard.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been working to broker a peace deal with Netanyahu, released a statement Sunday saying he welcomed the announcement but would also expect results to follow. "Plainly there are still issues to be addressed and the test of course will be not what is said, but what is done," the statement read, according to CNN.

Israel had announced Thursday that it would take small steps to ease the three-year-old blockade, though Netanyahu's office released few details.

"What is needed is a complete lifting of the blockade," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in response to the initial announcement. "Goods and people must be free to enter and leave. Gaza especially needs construction material, which must be allowed to come in without restrictions."

Under the blockade, "dual use" items like concrete and construction materials have not been not allowed into Gaza because Israel has said they could also be used for military purposes.

On Sunday, Hamas official Ismail Radwan again rejected the announcement, telling Reuters, "This is an attempt to sap international anger over the blockade on the Gaza Strip."

But officials from the White House and State Department commended Israel's decision Sunday as a good first step for peace. "We will continue to work in the coming days with our Israeli friends to continue to improve a humanitarian situation in Gaza that the president has said is unsustainable," said spokesman Robert Gibbs.

1.5 million people live in Gaza, according to Reuters, of which 1 million depend on regular supplies from the U.N. or foreign aid, which must pass through Israeli inspection. Most commercial goods have been banned during the blockade, but Reuters reports that Gaza smugglers have dug hundreds of tunnels underground to get contraband into the region.